Testimonials

From Cullingworth To Campbell River
By Colin Goldsmith, Cullingworth West Yorkshire U.K.

Some time ago my wife “Gwen” and I made the decision to look into the possibility of spending our retirement, or at least apart of it, outside the U.K. which is and has been our home from birth.

We had both been to Canada in the past, and had on many occasions talked about returning for a holiday, so with this in mind it was suggested that we combine the two. The holiday was booked and we arrived in Vancouver May 13, 2006 to become just two more tourists, but we were tourists with a mission. The holiday was great: the Rockies, the Ice fields, the Whale watching (no whales to be seen) -- Oh well! -- arriving back in Vancouver May 25.

We had been doing our homework back in the U.K. and had found the Campbell River Retiree web site, and through this had made contact with Brian and Joan Kyle and Jim and Rhonda McDougall. E-mails had been exchanged, and so felt very much at ease before we even set foot in Campbell River. We flew into Campbell River Friday evening May 26 and took a taxi to a motel with the intention of renting a car the following day. Then we made a phone call to Brian and Joan, arranging to meet the following day. It should be said at this point that as part of our holiday we had travelled through Campbell River but had not stopped there, our view therefore was a neutral one. However over the rest of the holiday it only served to increase our speculation.

Brian and Joan were marvellous and could not have done more. We never did rent a car because they wanted to show us every thing that there was to see and to do this they ran us around in their car educating us at every opportunity. They did not duck the odd awkward question, after all this is a town of some 30.000 people, that works for its living -- it is not just somewhere where old wrinkles hang out, and a good job too. We are the new age retirees, we are not going to sit there just waiting for God! We still go to “Rolling Stones” concerts. Campbell River seems healthy to us and seems to work because it works.

We decided to check out Campbell River having read about its climate, the people who live there, all the different hobbies and pastimes that are available, as well as the essentials: not too remote, good transport links and probably most important of all a hospital.

So if you think that you would like to take a look at Campbell River but don’t know anyone who lives there, contact the retiree web site and get some help. They tell it like it is, they don’t bite, and you will learn far more than you ever would wandering around on your own like a lost sheep.

Our visit to Campbell River was all too short, but we will be coming back a.s.a.p.
So thanks to Brian, Joan, Jim, Rhonda, Theo, Geoff and Freddie and all the other retirees we met.