Cat Visit(s) and Overnight in Sydney

The visiting hours to see the cats in quarantine are kinda strange. Visitors are only allowed to come on Tuesday or Thursday afternoon (for up to 2 hrs). Outside of these time frames, you're able to make a single, 1 hr appointment, each week on the Monday, Wednesday, or the Friday.

Since we were feeling a little cat deprived, we decided to take Thursday afternoon and Friday off  so that we could stay overnight in Sydney and get two separate visits in with the cats.

On our way to Sydney, we stopped to stretch our legs, grab a quick snack, and gas up. To our surprise, we stumbled upon a giant statue of a 'Merino'. Apparently it's a type of sheep that is prized for its wool. For those of you wondering, Blair wants you to know that, yes, the statue is anatomically correct. :)  But we'll spare you the photo of that.

Our quarantine visit on Thursday went pretty well. The cats were very excited to see us (or maybe it was just the fact that we had treats with us?). We were able to spend an entire 2 hours with them in their tiny cage. Needless to say, 2 people and 3 cats inside a 3ft x 5ft cell isn't very comfortable - but it was totally worth it for everyone. (Note: All 3 cats are not always in the same cage together.  The two boys share one cage and Chloe has her own. Luckily though, they allow us to put them all together when we visit).

We spent the night at the Royal Park (Crown Plaza) hotel at Darling Harbour and decided to have dinner along the water. We had a very nice meal at the Meat & Wine Co. restaurant which allowed for great people watching and views of the harbour!

Friday morning had us heading back to the quarantine site to spend another hour with the cats. They seemed surprised to see us so soon. It's very clear that the cats are missing us, as they seemed to be soaking up the attention and never seemed to get tired of us petting them.

It was a bit sad to say goodbye to the cats knowing that we wouldn't be back for several more days. However, it was good to see them and spoil them again...even if it was only for a few hours. We're just glad that they're all healthy and in pretty good spirits. But man, are we ever going to spoil them rotten when they get out of their kitty prison!

Car Shopping and New Accommodations

After showing up for work Monday morning to get our badges and meet our new teams, we took the afternoon off to do a little car shopping. We've been going back and forth between getting a new car or a used car for the past few days. It's interesting to see how models of cars differ ever so slightly from the ones we're familiar with in Canada. For example, Honda doesn't offer the 'City' (slightly smaller version of a Civic) back in Canada.

After much debate and a little number crunching, we decided to get a new car... a new 2012 Mazda 3 to be exact... zoom zoom!  We got a 6-speed manual hatchback that is graphite in color! :)  It's currently in the process of being delivered to the port in Sydney and is due to be delivered to us later next week... yay!

More importantly, however, is the fact that we've 'upgraded' our temporary accommodations. We're now staying in an apartment complex that is in the city centre. Our unit is on the 12th floor and offers some great views of the water. It's a pretty fantastic apartment to be quite honest and it should serve as a good 'base of operations' for our house hunting. It's considered the 'posh' apartments of Canberra...and we can totally understand why.

Getting to our new apartment was a bit of a struggle however, as our 10 pieces of luggage didn't exactly fit very well in our new rental car (we had a larger car for the day trip from Sydney to Canberra when we first arrived in the country). Even though we tried our hardest.. it still took two trips. :( We sure put our tiny Hyundai Getz to the test though.  Clown car anyone?

Canberra and 'Roos

We've only been in Australia for a couple days and the jetlag is still taking its toll. Waking up at 5 AM and going to bed at 9 PM seems to be the norm right now.  Our current hotel accommodations aren't exactly stellar either. In fact, we're already planning to move out of the hotel we're in, and into a much more suitable and nicer apartment in the city centre.



On Sunday some fellow Canadians took us on a quick little site seeing tour of Canberra. We went to Mount Ainslie Park which offered some fantastic views of the inner north, inner south, the Anzac parade, and the city centre.

We also went to Tidbinbilla, a nature reserve / park which is just south of the city. There, we got to hang out with a few kangaroos and koala bears.  The weather was also very nice, which made the day that much better. But then again, the weather has been a consistent 25-28 degrees since arriving (with minimal clouds).  Perfect to us.  And what the Aussies around here call a 'fine' day.

Flight and Arrival 'Down Under'

We have arrived!


Our flight was pretty smooth.  Flying first class really made this particular flight so much easier to tolerate. This was the third time down there for Stacy, but only the first time she was able to sleep on the 16+ hour flight. As for Blair, well...he's been lucky enough to fly this way in the past.

Champagne upon boarding, a menu presented to you to choose your food and drinks throughout the flight, and a fully reclining pod.  Ice cream upon request, white linen table service, real cutlery, you name it. Almost as though you were being treated like a real human being by the airline. Was the seat worth the $14K they were charging?  No.  But it was nice nonetheless.

To the left was our first view of Sydney this time around.  The bay inland is where you can find the Opera House and Sydney bridge, and we believe the beach you see on the bottom is Manly.

After landing, getting sprayed by quarantine, clearing
customs, and picking up our rental car...we made our way to visit the kitties in Eastern Creek (about a half hour outside of Sydney). We weren't sure if we were going to make it in time for our 11:30 appointment, but we arrived just a few minutes late.

After checking in and signing all of the paperwork associated with a first visit, we were able to see the cats for 5 minutes before our half hour appointment expired.  Not ideal, but we were quite happy to see them nonetheless.

They had only arrived 48 hours prior to us, and seemed a bit confused with their situation.  But overall, they were in pretty good spirits. Following our visit, we made our way to Canberra and checked in to our hotel, exhausted and completely jet lagged.

Departure day!

Well, it's been 2 days, and we've confirmed that the cats have arrived safely in Australia and that they have been accepted by AQIS! Woohoo! This means that everything is a go.. and there is no turning back now! (though it kinda already felt that way).

We had a pretty low-key day in Vancouver. We went out for lunch at Cardero's down by the water. In the process of getting there, we passed by the train station and shipyard and wondered if our sea container was there yet. According to the original date provided, the container should have been somewhere in this mess. 

Anyway, our flight doesn't leave until 23:45.. so we will make our next post once we land in Oz!

CFIA Vancouver and Cargo Flight #2

Well, today was the 'big day' -- shipping the cats to Australia. Even though it's only been 2 days since the last plane ride for the kitties, they seem to have forgotten about their adventure pretty quickly as they were relatively content and just chillin' out in Vancouver. Riley has been exceptionally lazy/nervous lately and has taken to sleeping under the blankets. I think he knows the journey isn't over yet!

Australia requires the cats' crates to be sealed by CFIA prior to their flight. We didn't know this, but the 'seal' was really just a metal tab that was fastened to the cage. Not exactly tamper proof.

After reviewing all the paperwork and re-stamping everything, we were done at the CFIA. Thankfully, the CFIA vet gave us a great tip -- buy ice cubes and put them in the cat dishes to allow them to melt and provide continuous water throughout the flight. So a quick stop at the local convenience store was made on the way to the cargo terminal.

Here are the cats all lined up in the Vancouver Cargo Terminal. If you look closely, you'll only see 2 cats in the cages. Apparently Chloe doesn't like the sound of planes and decided to hide under her bedding again as soon as we got her in the cargo area. Poor thing.

We said our last good-byes, told the cats we'd see them in Australia, and that it would all be over soon. Rough night.

In Vancouver!

We've spent the past two days hanging out with family in Vancouver and giving the cats a rest from flying. It's nice to finally take a small breather and relax a bit after being non-stop for months. Thankfully the cats have managed to forget the whole cargo experience and have even made themselves right at home. :)







Poor Hendricks had to share his home for a few days.  Thanks little guy for being such a great host!

Andrew and Stephen took us to to Queen Elizabeth Park today. As you can see, the park offers some great views of the mountain ranges and the city. Despite Andrew and Stephen's best efforts to convince us otherwise, however, we still believe Vancouver never sees any sun.  (Look -- not a hint of sun in that photo!)  ;-)

Air Canada Cargo, Heavy Fog and Delays -- Oh My!

Flight delays suck. Everyone hates them - passengers get rude, airline staff get miserable, and cats... well...they have no idea what's going on, but they aren't happy either.

We got up this morning - bright and early - to prep the cats, pack our bags, and be the first in line at 5:30AM at the Air Canada cargo building. When we arrived at cargo to drop the cats off, however, we were told that our 7 AM flight was delayed by 6 hours. With the thick and heavy fog, and the large number of pilots calling in sick (*cough, cough*), we should have known we'd be facing a delay. (Pic: Look at that fog!!)

So, rather than have our kitties stay in cargo alone for 6 hours, we had them weighed and measured, and then tossed them back into one cage. We then checked into our delayed flight so we could get rid of our baggage and then headed back to the hotel to grab some breakfast and give the cats a few more hours of freedom. (Pic: kitties being weighed)

A few hours, and another cargo trip later, we finally managed to get on our Vancouver flight. We even got to see the cats getting loaded onto the plane - which was a strange, yet comforting, feeling. Though the flight was rather boring and uneventful for us, we're sure it was a stressful nightmare for the cats down below in the cargo hold. (Pic: Can you see the 3 little crates going up the ramp at the back of the plane?)

 


Upon arrival in Vancouver, we met up with Andrew and Stephen (our awesome hosts for the next few days) and quickly headed over to pickup the cats at the Vancouver Cargo terminal building. Even though it took us about an hour to get there, the cats had still not arrived. In fact, as it turns out, they were still on the tarmac!! After a few tense moments and exchanges with the Air Canada cargo staff (and a 15 minute wait), we finally managed to have them returned. Luckily they arrived safe and sound - although Chloe was nowhere to be found at first as she was hiding under her bedding. (Pic: Chloe hiding under her bedding in her cage)


 


All in all.. a long day.. but everything worked out. Time to go enjoy Van-city.

Final Days in Ottawa

We're down to our last couple of days in Ottawa. The house closed yesterday and we're now staying in a hotel. For those of you that hate living out of a bag (like us), you'll probably cringe when we show you the 10 pieces that we'll be living out of for a while. :S It's not an ideal situation, but we need enough clothes and 'stuff' to last us for a month or two in Australia before our shipment arrives. Let us tell you.. moving all these bags around is a pain in the butt!





We also had to take the cats to their final vet appointment today. After several paperwork glitches, we managed to get everything sorted out with the vet and were lucky enough to get the CFIA's stamp of approval! Hopefully Australia doesn't have an issue with any of the paperwork (fingers crossed). Sadly, however, because we're now using our uber-sized airline crates for in-city transportation, we had to squeeze all 3 cats into one cage as our rental car couldn't accommodate all 3. Luckily, they actually didn't mind it too much!

Last Day in the House

Well, we've officially closed on our house and said our goodbyes. We put a lot of effort (and $$) into our house over the last 2 1/2 years - building the house to be exactly what we wanted. However, selling the house was a necessary step to make this move to Australia possible. So, while we're sad to sell it, we know it was the right decision to make. Note our sad faces on the left, in a picture we snapped right before leaving the house for the last time.

Well, time to go shack up at the Hilton. Only 2 more days until we depart for Vancouver!

Movin' on out

Well, the pack days for our house have come and gone. Our sea shipment is well on its way. Who knew that half our house would fit into a single 20ft sea container with a bit of room to spare? It was an impressive packing job.

What we find interesting is that the sea container is marked (you can faintly see it the numbers in the upper corner of the container) such that you can track your shipment along the way. According to our current tracking information, the container will be in Sydney on April 17th after being at sea for 3 weeks -- on a ship called Cape Maas (pictured on the right)! See you in about a month little sea container.