Vancouver Island road trip after experiencing several days of torrential

rains in the last few episodes we're happy to say that the Sun came out to

bid us farewell which meant we had a really nice day visiting Butchart Gardens

and exploring downtown Victoria well good morning guys today is the

final day of our Vancouver Island roadtrip so we are finishing things off

exploring Victoria BC and first stop of the day is the Butchart Gardens

my beautiful place yes this place has been going for over a hundred years you

have a hundred and thirty acres property out of which 55 acres are gardens if you

like flowers this is a place because I have never

seen so many flowers and so many different type of flowers and plants in

my life yeah they have different theme garden so you've got like your Italian

garden Japanese garden sunken gardens so there's lots of different areas to

explore within the park exactly and they also have nice restaurants and yeah

we're going to we're gonna have afternoon tea at Butchart Gardens

yeah and I'll mention the price while we're here we've got our tickets in hand

it's not a cheap attraction I'll tell you that it's 35 dollars and 49 cents

per person but you can come and go as you please for the whole day let's go

see it and come along but Butchart Gardens are hardly a well-kept

secret but we can assure you they are worth the hype these are some of the

most beautiful gardens we have ever visited and I for one spent the whole

morning mooing and eyeing at the beautiful displays so first garden of

the day today is the funkin garden it is beautiful but I was shocked to learn

that this used to be a quarry so basically they just had this ugly

looking pit and they've completely transformed it with flowers and trees

and it just looks like a secret garden quite the transformation

who knew a former quarry could be transformed into something so beautiful

you seriously can't miss this place if you come to Victoria BC

we are now visiting the Rose Garden what brought us here was the aroma we

literally just followed our noses there's just such a beautiful sweet

smell in the air and I guess Rose season must have just ended because there

aren't too many flowers left I think they've already bloomed but I mean what

is left over smells amazing also it's almost time for our afternoon

tea booking so we're gonna be heading over to the Tea Room soon and then it

will continue exploring a few more Gardens

and now we're going to take you to the Butchart Gardens dining room restaurant

where we ordered afternoon tea for lunch oh yes that's how we roll

it's not red rose guys we want for something a little fancier today so I'm

having the lemongrass ginger tea my dad went for something more traditional tea

I mean Sam is having like a special edition yeah like a tea to celebrate the

100 years of the garden we're starting off with something sweet

a trifle mmm so we have a vanilla sponge cake with custard and whipped cream and

raspberries try it we basically skipped breakfast

this morning so oh yeah we couldn't enter the menu featured scones with

cream and jam Cornish Pasties leek and cheese quiche and savory sandwiches with

salmon cucumber and egg salad we also got a plate of delicious

house-made sweets it was all delectable and we tried to save her each bite to

the max the good arrives we've got three layers we're starting with the bottom

one that has all the savory items so we've got a quiche a sausage roll that's

delicious by the way and so many different sandwiches

you know the sausage roll very good amazing and we got like a tray full of

sandwiches that we have sweets then we have scones on top all right so we

finished afternoon tea what did you guys think of the gardens and the experience

let's start with the food first yeah we cannot finish it all so we've got our

little bags this is going to be our real afternoon teas already preparing for a

late afternoon yes and yeah the garden itself

it was beautiful like this place is just stunning the amount of flowers and the

colors and we learned that they have 70 gardeners 70 garden they plant 350,000

plants at different times of the year because it's not always the same flowers

okay they you know seasonal it keeps changing

and the place is visited by a million people per year that's a lot hey that's

basically it we did the whole the whole garden about an hour and a half go

slower if you have more time you can stop in front of each little display and

picture I would say about three eight three to four hours either it's a

beautiful place to visit if you are a Victoria we recommended hi laughs and

now we're going to continue to downtown Victoria yeah yeah drive that way and a

little bit some historic buildings

arriving in Victoria was quite the contrast after spending the majority of

her trip in the north part of vancouver island it's surprising how quickly we

got used to being in small town surrounded by forests and all of a

sudden we were in a city with traffic and street lights and lots of people our

senses were slightly overwhelmed but we still had a nice time visiting the Inner

Harbor and hitting up a few of the main attractions

well hello hello hey guys it's Victoria we sure have is what like a 20 30 minute

drive and the gardens too here to join me Sam's been behind the camera all

morning and a little lazy in terms of speaking chattering hey you guys

something I am I am here yeah so basically we were

just walking along the waterfront checking out the boats all the little

taxis on the water like glad there's a lot of cool water taxis you can take

there's little tours that you can do and the weather couldn't be cooperating any

more it's beautiful sunny day nice little light breeze it's just it's

refreshing to walk around kind of like the lost I've called the last hurrah of

summer everyone's everyone's out at the cafe kind of enjoying a coffee at the

air so yeah and behind this is probably the most famous landmark in the entire

downtown area of Victoria the Empress the Empress one of the most famous places you can

have afternoon tea a little bit pricier too it's double what we paid today how

Butchart Gardens I think it's like almost 80 bucks 70 or 80 bucks it's just

a beautiful area like this is the place where you want to come and go for a

stroll get some great views of the harbor and also admire the architecture

- all right and next up we're just gonna cross the street and head over to the

Parliament building yeah

the British Columbia Parliament Buildings are home to the Legislative

Assembly of British Columbia the buildings were constructed in the 1890s

in a mix of Renaissance Romanesque and classical styles and they are stunning

once we set foot inside we were wowed by the mosaic floors the elegant dome and

the beautiful stained glass windows in short it was a feast for the eyes

I also added this place to trover because I didn't even know the

Parliament Buildings were open to the public but it turns out they are plus

it's free to visit and you can do a self-guided tour and go at your own pace

when did you guys think of the British Columbia Parliament building well that

was a wonderful surprise yeah it is beautiful inside you love checking it

out the building itself is just the majestic piece of our architecture you

know and then you have stained-glass windows with inscriptions and Latin

there's a beautiful dome some beautiful paintings as well yeah a beautiful piece

of history because this thing apparently was they started building in 1893 and

they finished it by 1897 at a cost of two million dollars but then today with

two million dollars in the city you don't buy much it's worth coming here to

visit because me this is a architecture marvel a lot of people don't realize

that the provincial capital is here on the island in Victoria BC a lot of people a

lot of people would assume it's Vancouver it is not thank you Victoria

Victoria this is the head of the provincial government

oh yeah british columbia okay right here right there that's where everything

happens after wandering along the harbour a bit longer we decided to head

back to the apartment because we had some leftover afternoon tea treats

calling our name we had a quick stop at Clover Point Park to snap some pictures

and befriend the dogs out on their afternoon walk and that was the end of

our day but now some final thoughts on our two weeks on the island

well guys it is the Last Supper actually the supper has already been Supper's

been devoured now dessert time I know wait overall we had a nice day today

what a difference between yesterday I mean came in and it was like Armageddon

yeah terms of the rain and wind and today we had this like picture-perfect

it was sunny and you know just a few clouds off in the distance 19 degrees

sunny yeah just you couldn't be better than that probably the the last taste of

summer that this place is gonna get for a while it'll be a nice walk around the

downtown area of Victoria we saw the most important and most beautiful

buildings easygoing town you know laid-back I'm the same no one seems to

be in a hurry here granted there is a lot of there are a lot of tourists and a

lot of retired people yeah so maybe that's the feel that we we kind of

experience experience right overall what a trip I mean we covered so

much on this island but um in terms of the places we visited did you guys have

any favourite favourite yeah let's go around and share our highlights

highlights would you like to begin yeah if I had to live here I think I

probably choose Mount Washington the a ski resort

the reason being because up there you get snow down here you get water rain

and I don't like the rain and when it's snow you can go out and enjoy the

outdoors and whatever you come home you shake yourself a little bit your clothes

you go in and no problem but if it's really raining heavy it has nothing you

can do I mean any way you want to look at it you're gonna get drenched that's

one of the reasons why I would pick Mount Washington they get like a meters

of snow yeah in the winter or during the winter month the highlight of being up

there is your radar nature and the mountains but you're only like 20 20 25

minutes away from like some majors city centers and Comox and Courtney so my

macaron yeah that's like my personal personal favorite idea you know then

after I liked everything you know they not sure

the provincial parks the forest a huge monster trees we seen I mean everything

is just the wilderness I love the wilderness

what would you Audrey for me in terms of parks two of my favorites were cathedral

grove in McMillan park with those towering cedars and Douglas fir trees

those were so impressive and also the day we went to Elk Falls Provincial Park

just outside Campbell River even more ancient trees there's that's that's so

close to my house I was really impressed by that trail and what was your favorite

place I feel like we already know the answer well it was nice to revisit my

hometown and to do the the you Chuck experience to friendly Cove I've always

wanted to do that I think like what I really liked about this particular trip

there's about 75 or 80% of the stuff we did and the places we covered were

things that I didn't get to see when I lived on the island because you know

when you live somewhere you don't always play tourist there and you know a lot of

the places I visit on the island were honestly through hockey trips and maybe

some school functions and things like that so there was a lot that I did for

the first time I actually one of the highlights for me was doing some of the

the island hopping up north going to Malcolm Island to see sewing Toula and

also going to alert Bay I found that really interesting just going on those

little ferry rides and visiting these these these remote islands and they were

really fascinating places I'll be honest we didn't have a single bad day on the

island like I think everything we did here yeah it was fun we did and we were

able to see as much as we wanted when it came to wildlife yeah the only thing

that we we didn't get to see what the elk and the Cougar and the Cougar and

the whales well but that's stretching it a little yeah I mean to see a cougar and

the wild you gotta be lucky or unlucky all right yeah either way you like it

you know it depends all friendly that animal is decided to be but then we saw

that black bear we saw horn oh yeah for spotting for spotty black amazing two

weeks yeah that's honestly way more than I

thought like and I lived here we didn't see them that frequently

yeah but why do we yeah the bald eagles but we were we were on

I think that's one of the reasons we saw dear we got tired of seeing those yeah

yeah that was like at the end we didn't pay much attention to them anymore

because he been three four five six they'll be right it's funny in some of

these smaller towns that we visited the deer are walking right in the middle of

town on the sidewalk right and between the people you know like I mean whole

families of deer walk there like pets they're like yeah well I think what

about guys in terms of tips for visiting the island for me like my biggest tip to

share would be you know not to get stuck in the the Victorian and I am Oh taffy