Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Trip Start
Mar 26, 2008
1
37
60
Trip End
Dec 07, 2008
Sudbury,
Ontario,
Canada
Thursday, July 31, 2008
The drive to Sudbury was very smooth, some minor stops for roadworks and some puzzlement from me as to where the rocky fairly barren landscape of the Sudbury I saw twenty years ago had gone.
The exposed rock in this area is Cambrian and it is the oldest exposed rock in the world, but the beautiful green landscape around these rocky areas was quite a contrast to my previous time here. I obviously didn't pay attention when I visited for a flying visit a couple of years ago.
We learned a lot more about Ontario on this visit, finding out that there are over 250,000 lakes in the province with over 25% of the world's fresh water in this area
House overtakes truck!
. Hard to believe that it is inland. We arrived early afternoon at Sue and Mike's house and were all thrilled to see them again as they had spent some time with us in New Zealand a couple of summers ago.
We were really relaxed immediately and felt so at home. Sue and Mike live on a beautiful lake called Long Lake, within 10 minutes of Sudbury city centre. Really the best of both worlds.
We had a great time with them and Mike's two daughters, Jenna and Cara. We enjoyed fishing, kayaking, canoeing and swimming in the lake.
Mike took the kids biscuiting and we cruised on the lake in the evening.
During the week we went to visit with Aunty Jan and Uncle Harry and visited a motor bike rally to see Cousin Sandy and Jim. This brought back great memories for me of time spent at the rallies some twenty years before. What a great bunch of people.
Sue's sister Jayne and husband Mike came for dinner and we learnt to play Texas Horseshoes, a lot of fun
Dock at Long Lake
! My cousin Chantelle came for dinner another night with her son Austin and Mike's other daughter Alison with her husband James and their sweet little girl Olivia. Also, Sue's daughter made the trek from Toronto and spent a night with her charming little boy Kyle. For us this was amazing, the kids never knew we had so much family. Sue and Mike had kindly offered to be our home base and we came back during our three weeks and spent several days with them again. It gave us the chance to sort all our gear, post a mountain of books home and downsize enough to get our one bag each for the flight to Europe. They cooked us the most amazing meals and we were so spoilt, we are really going to have to go all out and take care of them when they get back to NZ!
We enjoyed a Sunday supper at my cousin Jayne's and her husband Mike's and had a chance to meet all the kids, grandkids and family member there. What a great bunch of people, we are hoping to lure them all to NZ one day. We also had a lovely dinner with Grahams son Chad and his wife Alicia and their little boy Grayson. So great to meet them and weare going to insist that they come to our side of the world and visit.(we have a whole new generation of family here, we need to get back soon becuase our kids would have endless babysitting possibilities)
On our last day in Sudbury we had a lovely lunch with Aunty Jan's friend Blanche and her husband John
Lake
. Canadian hospitality sure is hard to beat. Toward the end of our first week at Sues we were in discussions with our NZ friend and real estate agent Willi Bardohl who has recently sold our home in Torbay (Free plug Willi!)about a property we thought looked great in Okura. We were heading toward agreeing on price and then decided late one night that one of us needed to go back and take a look. So Chris booked a flight that evening and headed home the next day. Chris travelled to NZ and back over 50 odd hours and six flights in the space of six days, but the trip was worth it as we signed up for the new house.
We then headed off to our next destination.
Comments
Holy smoke! It does fit! That's awesome.
Wow, the lake really looks beautiful and I'm a bit jealous you really getting to know all the Canadian clan. What great news about you sending home books (would it not be cheaper to buy them here?! than ship them half way round the world.?) I guess since books come from trees in the first place they may have nearly nullified their carbon footprint provided they coming by sea and not air. I'll have you know me and Brian just lifted a bazillion of the boxed books and albums you left behind and they weren't light!
At least this time your travel blogs can go neatly on a squitty DVD out of the way (only I'm told you better be sure to have them on a hard drive or you may be out of luck in the long run. Worse than a dodgy tape. Just ******* (I didn't count the stars so it is no particular word, just some bad thing that can happen to your recordings if you're not careful. I wonder if I can fit a comment this big on your public page...here goes nothing, suck in everybody!!!!!!!!!! The comments box doesn't look big enough for all of us! Those on the fringes may get left out. But isn't that always the way? (Philisophical moment that may not ever see light since it's on the fringes itself. Perhaps that's where its empathy came from.)
You're starting to sound like one
'Canadian hospitality sure is hard to beat.'
You forgot to say eh? Eh?
Or is that aye? NO, I thinnk that's Australian.
Anyway, lucky escape for those kids in Canada (or theire parents) being looked after by Cassie, Zack and Sam, they would be absolutely exhausted and cranky after hundreds of quizzes and talent quests and don't forget treasure hunts and possibly games of dog if we got a bit retro there somewhere along the way.
I think I am going to wind up this scintillating comment right here and go for three on one blog.
Wait for it...
And here it is....
Number three. ONly I think I may have run out of things to say pretty much. Things in the public domain that is. But I'm wondering,.... no, I better not go into that here. Bye! I'm running behind with the whole travelpod hting, but I will catch up!