Long Weekend: Five hour flights to Newfoundland have made short breaks to Canada possible
The weekend: We’re escaping to the wilds of Canada to find humpback whales, wandering icebergs and puffins. Failing that there’s always sampling the seafood bounty on offer in Newfoundland.
A long-haul trip to Canada? From Heathrow, St John’s is a five hour flight, and you touch down in the city around 3pm. On the way back it can be as quick as four hours, putting it in the same basket as Tel Aviv or Cape Verde in terms of travel time. A week would be great, but four days is enough to see the city and escape to some of nature's best.
All of these outdoor activities in the rain then? “Nobody comes to Newfoundland for the weather” was a line I heard many times on the island over four days of four seasons.
The silver lining: The cold waters surrounding the island make it a seafood-lover's dream. For centuries, cod was king for locals but a 1992 moratorium forced a diversification which makes today’s restaurant menus slightly more interesting. While cod tongues and fillets are plentiful, locally sourced halibut, mussels, scallops, snow crab and lobster adorn most entree lists. Fresh lobster is delivered by boat to the jetty below Chucky’s Seafood and Wild Game Restaurant on the edge of Terra Nova, and it can be on your plate less than an hour after that. For more modern flair Adelaide Oyster House in St John’s offers a raw bar, Mexican-style scallop sashimi, octopus and an enviable Spotify playlist.
Cod kissing is big business here: Canadians are a friendly bunch, but Newfoundlanders take it to a new level. Once they pick up that you’re visiting, their first question is: “Have you been screeched in?” Think of it as a friendly hazing. Local bars on George Street (which has the highest pub and bar density in North America) offer the welcoming ritual where visitors must recite a riddle, take a shot of Screech rum and kiss a cod.
You, too, could paint a fish
Oh my cod: If you’d rather fish for cod than kiss them, the not-for-profit tour company Fishing for Success will take you aboard their traditional wooden punts and teach you how to “jig” for the prized bounty. Jigging is back-to-basics hand-line fishing with a lure and the enterprise uses tourist-earned revenues to get local kids reconnecting with the sea. After landing your finned friend, your host gets you to, well, paint it. “Go for bright, contrasting colours, maybe a little silver of gold,” she suggests as we apply a thick coat of colour to the fins before pressing it to make prints. Yes, very weird, yet strangely therapeutic. And yes, you will eventually eat your haul as well.
Whale, puffins and icebergs are even more popular: As spring turns to summer Newfoundland geography becomes a major drawing card for nature lovers. Icebergs, formed of water more than 12,000 years old, take a three year meander after breaking off of Greenland and float by ‘Iceberg Alley’. Whales arrive to wow the tour boat crowds and puffins come onto craggy islands to raise their chicks. They’re torpedoes in the water, but their aeronautical antics were described as “like watching a potato fly”. See for yourself with Happy Adventure tours in Terra Nova National Park and Ecotours Zodiac Adventure south of St John's.
Rainy day activities: The Newfoundland Distillery Co in nearby Clarke’s Beach only opened last August but won two silver medals at the World Spirits competition in San Francisco this year, so stop in to try their locally sourced seaweed or cloudberry infused tipple.
Need to know? Air Canada flies a daily direct service from Heathrow to St John's from around £500 return. Rooms at The Inn at Happy Adventure in Terra Nova National Park start at £137 per night including breakfast. Rooms at the Marriott Courtyard in St John's begin at £104 per night.