When a stranger asks you if you want a cup of tea you never know what it may lead to. Here’s a little story from a small town in Alaska to remind you why slowing down and keeping a flexible schedule always leads to the coolest travel experiences.
“I’ll make you a drink, it’s one of my favourites. A little hard cider with sparkling water and glacial ice from Blackstone Bay. I collected it on my last rowing trip in Prince William Sound.” Glacial ice is a real novelty because it’s thousands of years old and pops because of the air inside. After dinner we had home-made berry sorbet and chocolate.
“This is how travelling should be,” Peter said. “You arrived at the right time. Tomorrow is church, Bird Creek style. We have a tradition of having waffles every Sunday, usually sometime between 9 and 10am.” It was midnight when we finally went to bed. We slept in and then spent our Sunday morning at church, Bird Creek style. Home-made waffles with fresh pecans, real maple syrup, greek yoghurt, raspberries and huckleberries and good coffee.
Around lunchtime Emma and I had adopted the Tibetan Terrier – Bagiera – and we headed off to spend some time at the beach. To top off a wonderful 24hrs we saw so many beluga whales (and their calves) that we couldn’t even count them all. And then we headed home and had local salmon steaks and New Zealand lamb for dinner. The ultimate Alaskan-Kiwi combination.
And that was the story of how we only made it 30 minutes down the road!
We are still in Bird Creek and if I didn’t have tickets and accommodation confirmed for Maui in a few days time I would have stayed in Bird Creek a little longer. But I think I’ll be back to visit. Tomorrow we’ll head off for 2 days of packrafting. That’s the plan anyway…
A few lessons here. Sometimes you don’t have to go very far down the road to have a great adventure…and drinking a cup of tea is always a good idea!

