A Day at the Taronga Zoo

One of the highlights of Sydney is their Taronga Zoo. We booked passage by ferry to the zoo with our tickets including admission to the zoo. It is about a 15 minute ride over with a stop along the way at Fort Denison, a small island in the middle of the harbour with defensive battlements built in the 1850’s. The zoo itself is built upon the side of sandstone bluffs with an excellent view of Sydney proper:



At the zoo they have the usual collection of primarily African animals (lions, gorillas, etc.) with a smattering of others from around the world such as Asian elephants and a Kodiak bear. But what we wanted to see were examples of Australian wild life and there they did not disappoint! At one of the first stops along the serpentine trail down the side of the bluffs was a building with platypus. While it would have been nice to take a picture they are nocturnal creatures and as a result their enclosure is kept fairly dark and not conducive to photographs without a flash.

But right next door is an area where people can pay an extra fee to get up close and personal with several varieties of Australian animals, in particular Koala’s. That we did not do but we did get to see the Koalas, even if they were mostly snoozing! Here is the most lively of the bunch that we saw:



And of course what would an Australian zoo exhibit be without Kangaroo’s and Wallabies! We learned what the difference is between the two in that Wallabies have more pointed snouts. Here is a picture of a Wallaby:



Another native animal, or at least native to the island of Tasmania, is the Tasmanian Devil who are currently under stress in the wild due to the presence of a cancer causing virus whereby, once infected, they usually die within about 6 months. Right now the zoo, in partnership with other Australian zoos, has a breeding program ongoing with the hope of raising enough disease free Devils that they can start releasing them back in the wild. Here are a couple of pictures of a pair of juvenile Devils and a single one:



And here is a video of an emu getting a bath!:



So far the visit to Sydney has been an interesting one. The city is far more people friendly than say, Toronto.

Adieu la Nouvelle Calédonie!

Well, our visit to New Caledonia is at an end! Both Janice and I were shocked at how fast the second week went by. We had a good time here, especially since the weather has cooperated quite well. Janice managed to get around town a fair amount by bus; there are two lines that both go downtown with one traveling right in front of the hotel.

Both weeks here she joined an informal group of English speaking women residing in Noumia who try to meet every Thursday at a place called The Coffee Club, afterward some of the group go to lunch.  A fair number of course have husbands connected in some way to Vale so several are from the Sudbury are. Here is a picture of Janice with the group at lunch this past Thursday:

One of the popular past times here is taking advantage of the usually present breezes. This includes wind surfing and sailing, but also includes paragliding and most spectacular of all (to me) is kite surfing! Here is a picture of a paraglider suspended above Ouen Toro, the high hill just behind the hotel:

And here are some kite surfers just off the point beside the hotel:

One thing we noticed is that Noumia is a popular destination for cruise ships such as this one:

On Friday, the day before we left for Sydney and the beginning of our return trip to Canada, we went out for supper with our hosts Andre, Stacey and their young son John. We were late getting to the restaurant due to some miscommunication problems and so had problems getting a table at the restaurant that was chosen which continued with we not getting our meals to almost 2 o’clock! Here all of the businesses seem to run on very laid back schedules. For example, Andre and Stacey had been trying to buy a car for the last two weeks. One day they went to a used car dealer ship at lunch time. Well, the dealership was closed for lunch too, but for two hours! And while many of the super markets sell beer and wine the have odd hours for when they can sell them. For example forget about it if after lunch on Friday and Saturday!

Before I close here is a picture of Andre and his family at the water front:

It has been a great visit and both of us would certainly like to come back if we could but that is probably unlikely. Still it is a lovely place and without a doubt we both felt very comfortable here, even with the struggle speaking French. I am still amazed at how much French vocabulary I remember from grade school but even so I had a tough time stringing together enough to even strike up a casual conversation. But with rare exception most people here could speak some English so that was not a major impediment.

A Day On A Coral Island

Well, here it is, just over the half way mark for our stay in Noumea, New Caledonia. I had a good first week becoming familiar with the data I need to process, the scripts I will be using to process with as well as a review of what the job I will be doing entails. I spent my time with Andre, a former colleague with the department I used to work for with Vale who is now responsible for long term planning here at the Goro mine.

We have also met his family consisting of wife Stacey and young son, John. Having only recently moved here from Brisbane, Australia, they are adapting well to life here in New Caledonia. Stacey has also shown Janice around and helped introduce her to some of Noumea’s finer points.

They hosted a party at their apartment yesterday that Janice and I were also invited to attend. We had a good time meeting some of the people that are parts of their lives here, whether from work or just acquaintances.

Today, Sunday, September 23rd, Janice and I spent a good part of the day over at Iles Aux Canards, a small island out front of our hotel that we had been told provides excellent snorkeling of the local coral reef. We walked over to the local water taxi depot and took a boat over to the island. I will be the first to admit that we were not well prepared! Here is a picture of the island from the main land:

While I should have known better the island is the result of accumulations of storm produced fragments of the local coral barrier reef. While we were expecting coral sand instead we found ourselves on an island made up primarily of chunks of coral that make walking in bare feet difficult! Should have brought water shoes! Here is a picture of some of the detritus in front of a set of loungers we rented:

Even so we did manage to get in the water to snorkel and the advance billing was pretty much bang on even though we only saw a small part of the local reef. Wherever you find growing coral there are a multitude of fish; small ones, large ones, blue, yellow and all colours in between! I only recognized a small number such as brightly coloured parrot fish. Here are a few pictures showing some of what we saw:

I would have liked to have taken more pictures but I hadn’t made sure the seal on my camera case was clean and so some water had started to leak in. Fortunately not enough to harm the camera.

Off to Noumea, New Caledonia

I have started a big job through my consulting company for a division of my former employer, Vale. This will involve updating several resource models. But before I can begin, the job requires a site visit so Janice and I jumped on an airplane and flew half way around the world to Noumea, New Caledonia.

For those of you who do not know where New Caledonia is check out this link:
https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=noumea,+new+caledonia&hl=en&ll=-22.309426,159.038086&spn=27.944094,53.569336&geocode=+&hnear=Noumea,+South+Province,+New+Caledonia&t=m&z=5

While here for the 2 week site visit we will be staying at the Royal Tera hotel. Here is a view of the bay from our hotel room followed by a view of the hotel from the other side of the bay.

 

And here is a short video showing our suite:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=-5cc_fJJrIk

Right now we are enjoying some R&R recovering from the flight over. I will post some updates during our stay here.

Living with Nature!

One thing about living where we are is that there is no shortage of natures creatures that we live with. Out at camp we have quite a few snowshoe hares that like to graze on our lawn.



Or dragon flies, some that seem to hover in the same spot, like this one, for minutes at a time!



Or the hummingbirds that come to our new feeder.



Or the chipmunk that comes for peanuts that he will take right from out of your hand.



And I can’t forget the Spruce Grouse that came to inspect my yard work one day up close and personal!



And at home, besides the white tailed deer that frequent our place we also have a ground hog who has taken up residence under one of the sheds.



An occasional pileated woodpecker drops by to check out the grub situation.



And our most recent visitor, a lynx!



The town motto is “Nestled in Nature” and they are not kidding!

A Busy Summer

It is amazing how fast this past summer went by! I suppose one reason is because I was pretty busy with my various home renovation projects. And during that time I also acted as general contractor for some renovations at my mothers place as well as trying to maximize time spent at the summer camp.
At the end of July Desiree and Daelyn spent some time with us out at camp. Desiree had even come with a to-do list of activities she hoped to accomplish. I can say with confidence that we were able to do them all, from blue berry picking, making a pie, to metal detecting and fishing!

Here they are swimming with Janice:



Daelyn enjoyed herself down at our little beach digging in the sand:



And how can someone be camping and not roast marshmallows!



As usual the fishing was pretty good too as the small mouth bass were very cooperative!



I took a big bite out of the home renovation master plan by finishing to lay the new bamboo flooring in all the rooms except for the kitchen plus painting the master and spare bedroom. On the outside I took advantage of the fact that Jordan came to stay with us for almost a month and a half. During that time we stripped off the rest of the siding, put up foam board insulation on the 3 sides that had not yet been done followed by plywood sheathing. Then we took out the last of the old windows, replaced them with new and then put up house wrap. I then finished up by replacing the soffits and fascia as well as a new storm door on the porch.

Here are some pictures I took at various stages of the exterior work.

Jordan stripping off siding from the west side:



The house with the foam board, plywood sheathing, new windows, house wrap, soffits and fascia plus new gutters installed:



The next job planned is to put up either siding or some other exterior finish but that will be next years project!

In addition Jordan, myself and by sister Nancy and brother Stephen put up siding on 3 sides of my mothers house. There we did like at our house in that after the old insulation was removed we put up foam board insulation followed by plywood sheathing and house wrap before installing the siding.

Here is the south side of the house after the siding had been removed.



And here is Jordan screwing down the plywood sheathing on top of the 2 inch foam board on the north side. Together with the house wrap this will make her place much less drafty as well as warmer come winter time.



Here is Nancy finishing the south side with siding:



And Stephen and Jordan doing the same on the North side.



And here is the back:



Now our mother can live more comfortably this coming winter. Next year our brother David will act as general contractor as we will need to replace the roof!