Skyfire 2013

As if being treated to a large fireworks display for Canberra Day wasn't enough! Skyfire 2013 was scheduled exactly one week afterwards!

Skyfire is the largest annual fireworks display presented in Canberra each year. To add to the coolness factor, the entire show is set to a soundtrack simulcast on a local radio station. We planned the night with some of our favorite local friends, and it turned out to be a great time down by the lake! We will definitely head back to see it again next year.

Fireworks synchronized to music

The 'finale' was a show of seemingly endless fireworks!

Canberra Turns 100

We consider ourselves to be very fortunate to be in Canberra for its centennial year (2013). Although there are many events planned throughout the year to celebrate, the larger events were held in March (as March 11 was the 'official' birthday).

Included in the festivities on this day were various musical and artistic performances down by the lake, what was said to be the world's longest bubbly bar, and an impressive fireworks display.

As we were living in our apartment in the city center at that time, we were able to watch the fireworks from the roof top of our building. It was a pretty cool experience, but we unfortunately didn't have our cameras with us.  That's ok though - as you'll see from our next post, the following weekend was 'Skyfire', and we were able to take lots of pictures of the fireworks that night!

New Zealand Trip!

In mid-February, we were fortunate enough to head to New Zealand for a few weeks.  Stacy was sent over for a week of work, and then Blair joined her in Wellington for a night before starting a tour of the south island.

That last night in Wellington saw us heading out with our Kiwi colleagues to a great brew pub along the beautiful Wellington harbour. A great night was had by all! Luckily, we were given the privilege of sleeping in the next morning as our departure from the north island was only scheduled for the early afternoon.

Wellington Cable Car

New Zealand Parliament (aka "The Bee Hive")

The next day, we left a cold, windy, and rainy Wellington behind and boarded the Interislander ferry to bring us from the north island to Picton on the south island. We could have flown, as opposed to taking the 3 hour journey on the ferry, but we wanted to experience the most common form of transport between the 2 islands. We did, however, opt to spoil ourselves a bit by booking Premium Plus tickets for the ferry. These tickets granted us access to a premium section of the ferry, fitted with comfortable couches to sit down and relax at. Further to this, the tickets provided us with unlimited access to food and beverages (including alcoholic), as well free internet for the duration of our journey. In the end, we decided we were quite happy with our decision to upgrade our tickets - while our area was quiet and relaxing, the public area of the ferry was loud and chaotic.

Our ferry

Once we arrived at the Picton ferry depot, Stacy gathered the checked luggage and Blair headed to the rental car desk to pickup the rental car. All in all, it was a very smooth transition from the north to south island.

It was late afternoon when we arrived, so we hopped in our rental car and headed to our first stop: Kaikoura. We arrived around 9 PM that night and tucked right into bed at our pretty hotel near the water. Kaikoura came highly recommended to us for its whale and dolphin tours. As we've done the dolphin thing before, we opted to do the whale tour. We woke up bright and early (5 AM) and headed to the whale watching boat dock. After checking in and watching a movie, we were on our way.  The tour lasted about 3 hours and we saw a whale breach the water several times. This was quite exciting to us, but the tour operators didn't think it was sufficient (as they usually see much more of the whale, apparently). So at the end of the tour, we received an 80% refund.  We thought they were crazy, but gladly accepted our money back!

The Whale Watching headquarters

Our Captain listening for whales

A whale breaching the surface

After the tour completed, we hopped back in our rental car, grabbed some lunch at a local cafe on the water, and headed up to a lookout point which offered a 360 degree view of the city. What a beautiful place!

Beach at the Whale Watching site

Kaikoura coastline

Kaikoura

Look at that blue water!

Following this, we headed further south to our next stop: Christchurch. As you likely know, Christchurch was hit by a couple large earthquakes back in 2010/2011. The earthquakes were devastating and the remnants of the destruction were still quite evident during our visit. There is a whole area of the downtown area blocked off (known as the red zone).  We walked around the border of this area, and peered through the metal fences. The area can be best described as eery - it hasn't been touched since the day of the earthquake. Buildings and churches are demolished, windows are broken, and there is debris everywhere.

The remnants of a barber shop

Remnants of a building

Destruction everywhere

Next to the red zone, is an area that has been re-built in an effort to re-energize the city. This new area is called City Mall and features a pop-up mall consisting of stores located inside storage/cargo containers. Although these were meant to be temporary, they have become quite popular and it is expected that they will become permanent.

A coffee shop made out of shipping containers

Another store made from storage containers

A temporary 'bank'

We finished up our visit in Christchurch with a tour of the Antarctic center. We spent an exciting 2 hours there touring the snow and ice exhibit and learning lots about penguins. Here are some pictures of us inside the Antarctic Storm exhibit, and a picture of the United States Antarctic Program Centre!

Once we were done, we hopped back into our car and headed further south towards Dunedin. About halfway there, we made a mandatory stop to see the Moeraki Boulders, round boulders located on the beach which are suspected to have been created through 60 million years of erosion on the ocean floor. Very cool to see in person!

We arrived in Dunedin to find a very cool little city with lots and lots of restaurants. After checking into our hotel, we grabbed some Indian food and relaxed the rest of the night in preparation of our full day tour of the Otago Peninsula the next day. The tour consisted of viewings of the Royal Albatross, sea lions, seals, and penguins. All in all, a great day on a beautiful rugged coastline.

Sea Lion yawning

Penguin returning home from a day at sea

Albatross

Otago Peninsula Coastline

Penguin returning home from the day at sea

Penguins

Sea Lion

Sea Lion

Seal

Following our stop in Dunedin, we made our way over to Queenstown, with a quick detour to the southern-most tip of the island, a little place called Bluff...one of the oldest European settlements in NZ, also famous for its signpost at Sterling Point.

Teeth sculptures on the Dunedin harbour

The famous Sterling Point signpost

Our plans in Queenstown included a full day tour to Doubtful Sound, and lots of relaxing (and birthday celebrations for Stacy). It was by far our most favorite place on this trip. The weather was perfect (warm enough to see people swimming in the lakes) and it was just simply breathtaking. The pictures we took do not do it justice.

Beach in the center of Queenstown

Queenstown Skyline Lift

Bungee jump anyone?

Queenstown

Looking down at Doubtful Sound from above

Doubtful Sound

Doubtful Sound

We're Moving!

Although we love where we currently live in Canberra, we think it's time for a change - and time for more living space!

Knowing our current lease was set to expire mid-April, we began looking for new places to rent in February. We visited a few homes, but found them to be way too large for our current needs. They were the size of our old home in Ottawa! But given that we only have 1/3 of our furniture here with us in Australia, it just didn't make sense renting a home that would be 2/3 empty.

The day before Stacy was set to leave for NZ for work, she stumbled upon a fantastic home and quickly emailed Blair telling him that we 'simply MUST have this home'. She was, however, realistic in knowing that it would be quite difficult to rent a place in the tight Canberra market with her leaving the country the next day.

Renting homes in Canberra has proven to be a bit tricky and quite a bit different than from back home.  For instance, in order to rent a place, it is a requirement to a) visit the rental in person and b) submit an application complete with tons of references, 100 points worth of identification, proof of employment and salary, etc. The list goes on.  The competition is also quite stiff. You are often competing for the rental with a handful of other interested applicants. Finally, it is quite similar to buying a home - most times it is the highest bidder that wins. Applicants can submit an application with a bid within the suggested price range, or they can choose to submit one with a much higher price.  All of this combined makes finding an adequate place to rent quite stressful.

So on Friday night, we scrambled to put our application together in the midst of Stacy packing. Early the next morning, Stacy flew out to NZ and passed on the ambitious task of having Blair visit the home to ensure it looked just as good in person as it did in the photos. Upon visiting the house, Blair quickly knew it would be perfect for us and submitted our application on the spot. He chatted up the realtor, explained the reason for our being in Australia, and expressed our extreme interest in renting the home. He noted that there were several other couples visiting the home, but was able to get a significant amount of time in with the realtor before departing. All in all, it was a good visit.  Then the waiting began.

By Monday, Blair had been contacted by the realtor advising him that we were the successful applicants! We were quite happy and managed to get all the lease paperwork (which required Stacy's signature) completed via email.

We don't have pictures of the house to share right now, but will post some in the coming weeks once we move in.  But we will say that our new house has a fantastic outdoor kitchen and swimming pool (complete with palm trees)!