Gasp! What about this one?!

Brad Pitt brought sons Pax, right, and Maddox, behind them, and parents, Bill and Jane, background, on Maid of the Mist. (April 26)

Who doesn't love Niagara Falls!

Remember This Kids?

Taylor and Selena chatted over lattes Thursday morning with Gomez's mom playing chaperone and were also seen together at The Old Spaghetti Factory earlier in the week.

I know, right?!

C.C.4.EVA

T H A N K Y O U

Bye Bye Stratford : And Canada :(

Us and some of our billets outside St Michaels, just before we got on the Yellow Rocket to go to Toronto Airport ...

But on the way out of town .... we stopped by The O'Reilly Household!
What a treat! Here we are on the front porch after having eaten Mrs O'R's awesome raisin cookies, with Jack, Shannon, Mr and Mrs O'R.

5 hour flight from Toronto (which arrived all too quickly) to Vancouver; departing 4:10pm arriving 7pm LOL

Sunset at Vancouver ... from the airport terminal.
Remember this from our first night in Canada?

Waiting for the plane .... last chance to stock up on Tim Horton's Donuts

29 hours of travelling from Stratford to Otumoetai .... it wasn't as bad as all that though.

We were pretty much high on the memories of the trip (and Tim Horton's donuts*)

* Maple dip - with cream [or 'creme'] inside was voted joint Best Donut with Sour Cream Glaze

Beautiful Mr O'Reilly's Hometown (city)

Town Hall

Amber the Mennonite

Awww!

Rosie particularly excited about Chocolate Barr's ..... the Chocolaterier owned by Derrick Barr

Kids being kids after watching West Side Story at the Festival Theatre

... enjoying the sunshine!

William Shakespeare

The original Festival Theatre was in a tent!

This is a sculpture commemorating that ....

another re - creation

This morning we had a walking tour of Stratford; taking in all the sights, lead by our very own (and cheap) Mr O'Reilly (native).

It was cold.

We walked along the river Avon to the theatre, and watched WEST SIDE STORY, which was awesome!

Afterwards it seemed to have warmed up somewhat, so we spent some time in the park, playing on the swings and eating every flavour beans ("vomit" flavour is not recommended, nor "skunk juice" but it is pot luck)

The Crew at School - well meeting anyway!

St Michael's treated us so well, here are a few pictures from the gathering area, and some of their most wonderful teachers; Mr Damon and Ms Bancroft.

Thanks so much for everything St Mike's!

Stratford - St Mike's

Otumoetai College's answer to Hillary / Wendy : Liana Yong!

This is how they receive the notices!!!

(and hear O ' Canada every morning) (yes, the National Anthem is played every morning)

"Grandad"

ST RATFORD!

We arrived at St Michael's School around 7:30pm after a full day at Niagara Falls.

We soon met our host families and dispersed into the Stratford night.....

Stratford is a consistently beautiful city - 32 000 people live here, and they are all wonderful.

Red brick and stone houses, beautiful surrounding countryside and cute boutiques / cafes.

Wednesday was a teacher only day at school, so the students spent time with their host families; i do know that Chrosie, Thea and Candice have already toured the chocolate familiy owned by a friend of Mr O'Reilly.....

Here are two pictures captured today, there will be more after tomorrow when we all get back together for a tour of Stratford and a visit to Canada's Premier Theatre (like, officially) to see West Side Story

Stratford on Earth Day

Niagara Falls - It's a Waterfall and TWO cities!

The spacious Amtrak train - from Toronto's Union Station to Niagara Falls

The crew in front of the "horseshoe falls" - the one on The Canadian Side.

The beautiful Christy Brown (yes she is still camera shy)

Walking along the river front - it was COLD! and even 1km away from the actual falls we were getting wet from it's mist!

Nick enjoying the falls

The falls on The American Side - which are better?

Toronto! Day 3

A subway train and two buses later, we arrived at the Zoo.

It was a very long journey. Amber was tired!

Amber and Monique's boyfriend.

So, the 'Canada' Area of the Zoo is way the heck at the back (it was pointed out to me by a Torontonian that of course that would be the LEAST favourite part for anyone actually from Canada), but apart from the primates, it was basically the go-to for the Kiwis.

Unfortunately it was pouring with rain,

and I mean POURING.

And cold.

And I mean COLD.

but we did get to see two sleeping grizzly bears!

YAY!

(there were also Bison, Arctic Wolves and a Moose, Bald Eagle, Cougar but by that stage we really were soaked through and freezing!)

Mostly everyone hung out in the cafe for an hour waiting for those who went to the Canada area last, to return. It was cold. Like, really, super, disgustingly cold.

We LOVE Canada!

Seriously, our first day of inclement weather; we have been very spoilt. And Toronto has laid on the whole spread for us in 3 days. The bus ride back was very entertaining - for those who were not asleep!