It is Canada Day – a public holiday, so the day starts off with everyone on the bus singing a loud rendition of Canada’s National Anthem and the driver flicking the interior lights on and off for visual effects. I have to report that we went to the $1 shop and purchased the necessary items to support Canada Day – can you belieeeeeeve it? It was on to Niagara Falls to be given a pink poncho like the other 5,000 visitors so two shrink wrapped Kiwis boarded the Hornblower to take a cruise to the base of the falls. I can report we were very pleased to be dressed in ze plastic poncho because the spray that comes off the falls is like being in a downpour. However, the sight is Magnifique and it crosses another thing off the bucket list to witness 6 million cubic feet of water a minute tumbling over this wonder of the world. This was followed by a visit to Niagara Lakes for lunch – a very picturesque area indeed – and checkin at the ‘Otel. Now ze problem here was that our room was on the 34rd floor and the one in charge of the B’s stepped into ze room and almost collapsed (seriously) – a serious panic attack of vertigo. We had to go down and request a room on a much lower floor so ended up comfortably on the 10th floor which was still much higher than the falls. The evening ended with a fireworks display for Canada Day – first time we have looked down on ze fireworks instead of looking up and I can report that Pauanui’s New Year fireworks were every bit as good as what we saw from ze 10th floor last night.
As I write this we are sitting at ze border. We rose early today to leave ze Otel at 7.15 am in order to try to be the first bus at ze border but NO! Four buses beat uz to it – the cheek of them! It is now 9 am and we are still sitting at ze border. The Border Official boarded ze bus without a “gidday, good morning, welcome to ze US of A or even a howdy”. He just asked how many and ordered uz all off ze bus. Now ze Kiwis are lucky because we have come via the US already so they have uz on their computer. But the Aussies are something else and it is taking quite a while to process them for heavens sakes. I am just a little concerned they are going to search the bus because I FORGOT I had a banana in ze bag. Thank heavens there are no sniffer dogs here at this border and no one filming Border Patrol! Then I learned that the only things you can’t bring in are tomatoes or peppers.  Whew what a relief!

Every so often we have to make notes as we travel because the Tour Director has things to tell us. An elderly lady on ze bus asked the Tour Director if he had a rubber she could borrow. She has obviously mucked up her notes! He nearly choked until the driver explained that she really wanted to borrow an eraser. We learned that Canadians call condoms “rubbers”. Heaven forbid – so glad we didn’t make a mistake writing owa notes!

Well here we are in the USA and the first thing we see is the golden arrrrrches and at ze morning tea stop you can buy potato chips and pretzels dipped in chocolate if you please. You can also buy a “small” piece of pizza which would only just fit on our dinner plates at home. Can you belieeeeeve it? Yes you can I am sure!

Now we are off to Lancaster – Amish country and we are visiting two farms.  But what will the bathroom be like?