Yes, we're here! Just busy!

We've been super busy so the blog has been neglected lately. Well, and we can't find our NZ pictures at the moment. Hopefully we didn't lose them in the move! I do want to post more on our NZ trip as I do look at the blog as our journal. A great way to keep our memories.

Since we don't have the NZ pics I've decided to jump ahead to our last couple of weeks in Brisbane! I need to get myself caught up so this may be a looooooooong post! :) Sorry!

We had a lot of playdates and get togethers before we left...

BBQ's and playdates at New Farm Park. With daycare buddies.

Shamus and his friend, Bhavya. Bhavya's family may come to Canada next year so exciting for Shamus and Breagha.

I also got to have a girls night out before we left. Which is always fun! Thanks to the wonderful ladies for coming out!! We went to Cloudland which is reallllllly nice.

Felis and I getting ready to head out. Love her shiny/sparkling pants!

A close up so you can see the cool hat that Felicity made. And she made her necklace and top!

Doesn't everyone look great! And Clo looked amazing - 7 week old baby at home!

It's doesn't really matter where you are or go, as long as it's with great friends!

We squeezed in one last BBQ at Felicity and Nigels too! (did I mention that we were super busy before we left???) Thanks guys!

Felicity surprised me with a hat that she made for me! A warmer hat so I can wear it in Montreal! Thank you. I love it!!!!

Tycho and Shamus also squeezed in one last wrestling match that night. Pretty funny!

We miss you guys!

I also had a night out with my coworkers before leaving (Darryl did have a guys night out and a night out with his coworkers. But, he doesn't take any pictures! He didn't miss out! :)

We had a great time and I miss them too! I really enjoyed my team in Brisbane and wish them all the best!

The Stacey's

Ahhh, and the last day of school and daycare.

Shamus and his Aussie mates!

Shamus' teacher, Mrs Maslen was amazing. We loved her. She put together a book for Shamus with pictures from all the kids and she did a CD for us with tons of pictures. And she gave us his school scrapbook of all his work since January.

The kids daycare director, Andrea, gave the kids a beautiful scrapbook of all the wonderful things they did while at the ABC Daycare. It was such a wonderful gift. Thank you Andrea!!! We love it! I know it took a long time to put it together and we really appreciate it. They also gave Breagha a koala teddy and Shamus an Aussie hat. Very thoughtful. And of course we got all of Breagha's beautiful art work!!

Felicity and I got together on our last Friday morning in Brisbane. She has a few of her hats for sell in a couple of shops so we checked it out! Very excited as the shops are SUPER fancy!
Then for lunch we met up with Rej, Clo and Gabriel. Did I manage how cute Gabriel is!!! And growing so fast! Rej and Clo are so wonderful with Shamus and Breagha. We're really going to miss that!! Gabriel is a very lucky little boy.
Hopefully we'll see Rej, Clo and baby Gabriel next summer. Please come visit!
And last by not least (I told you this would be long!), we headed off to Kate and Morgan's for a yummy dinner on Friday night. Thanks guys! It was great to have a little get together for heading back home.

Kate and Morgan are amazing in the kitchen. :)

Darryl and Amy hooked up in the kitchen to do a "Bean Dip 101" class. Have you tried the dip yet Amy?

Cheers!!!

Thank you to everyone for making our time in Brisbane the BEST. We appreciate all the friendships we made. And all the wonderful experiences we got to enjoy with Shamus and Breagha. We're so happy we had the chance to see Australia and thanks to everyone who was a part of it. Hope you can make a trip to Canada to see us.

Now, we're back home and loving that too. It's great to see family and old friends. We're very lucky and thankful.

Next post is our trip to Sydney!! Steve and Cari met up with us and we had a wonderful time!

Stay tuned.

A post that is not about NZ :)

Hi All!

I thought I would do a quick post that is not about our New Zealand trip. But, just to let you know, it was a great trip. :) We've really been enjoying our time back home. Some things never change and then there is always something new to discover. We're loving the time with family and it's been really nice to see the kids warm up to all the grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins! And I was very pleased to have a feed of lobster on the first day of fishing! Thank you to my nephew Mitch. Very yummy.

We do miss Australia though! Especially our great friends. And the weather! Damn, it is chilly here! I didn't bring much for warm clothes because everyone kept talking about the great spring...hmmmm, it's been cold since we got here. There was 1 or 2 warm days but chilly overall. We need time to adjust! :)

We did arrive at a great time of year though. Spring is here which is always nice. And the hockey play offs are on! I missed Ron MacLean!

We arrived in Montreal this afternoon and got settled into our temporary apartment. It's right downtown so it will be very busy I'm sure. I plan to look into school for Shamus this week and daycare for Breagha. And then look for our new home!

We will post some pictures of Antigonish (And Mabou!! Thanks for asking Clo! Mabou rocks too!) but I haven't taken the camera out much since we got home. We have soooo much luggage that I haven't dug for anything in a suitcase unless necessary.

Hope everyone is well. And we'll post again soon!!

NZ Part 2: Mostly Milford

Hey everyone,

Welcome to part two of our New Zealand posts. This will be mostly a picture post. For the main reason that the pictures gave me a lot of grief while uploading them and I don't really feel like writing much of anything. Most of the pics you will see are from Milford Sound. Milford Sound may, quite possibly, be one of the most beautiful places on earth. Sadly, our day there was one of the only rainy days we had on our trip but that didn't diminish the splendor of Milford. However our pictures truly do not do it justice. If you are ever in NZ please treat yourself to this little spot of heaven.

Family snap in Queenstown.
The start of our boat tour in Milford Sound. If my memory serves me correct that waterfall in the distance is over 100 meters tall. It will give you a sense of the scale of these cliffs that surrounded us. It is one of four permanent waterfalls in the sound. After a decent rainfall there can be thousands of water falls. It really is amazing.
Wow! ... look a waterfall. It's not everyday you see one of those in Milford Sound. Oh. Wait... yes it is everyday you see one of those in in Milford Sound.
Is that an island with a freakin tree on it. Why yes it is.
Full steam ahead!
OMG! another water fall!
ok ... enough with the waterfalls already.

This is the road in and out of Milford Sound. I can't describe how amazing it was. Not even sarcastically!
This guy decided to entertain us while we were waiting to go through the tunnel to leave Milford Sound. You should have heard his Whoopi Goldberg impression. He nailed it!

Are you kidding me? Really? Another waterfall? C'mon!

The drive back to Queenstown was wonderful. The sun was beginning to set which created some stunning views.

Stacey noted that the drive felt like "driving the Cabot Trail in Banff". The road snaked along the lake with the Remarkables off to our left.

I would comment "beautiful" or "amazing" or "wondrous" but I think you get the point.
Yup. Nice.

Until next post. Be well.

NZ Part 1

Well finally we get back to the blog. Sorry for how long this has taken but with the move home the blog was not our top priority. What?!! You may say. In the days of facebooking, tweeting, blogging and buzzing... Social networking was not your priority. Shame on you MacPurdys... Shame!

Yes us shameful MacPurdys have crawled out from under our stone of social disconnect to enlighten you in the beauty of New Zealand (not that these pictures do it justice). I must say NZ is quite simply breathtaking. Because of our limited time we only explored the south island. It had more than enough to offer. Below is the first few days of our trip. Hope you enjoy!

This is the little seaside town on the peninsula east of Christchurch called Akaroa. It was settled by the French and has maintained a french influence up to today.
A windy day out on the pier.

For those of you who don't know. That white building is what the New Zealanders call a light house. It has a large light at the top that spins around in a circular fashion in order to warn approaching ships that land is close. This invention is quite ingenious. If only we had something similar in Nova Scotia. You know... because we have a lot of ocean around us.
And this... this is a small boy throwing rocks under a "light house" I tell you. New Zealand is amazing. The things you see there are wondrous.
Moving on from Akaroa we drove inland to Mount Cook. There really isn't much in the area other than a campsite, a hotel and some phenomenal hiking. This was one of the hikes towards the base of Mt. Cook. I swear I saw Frodo and Sam just ahead of us.
The kids did really well on this trek. The suspension bridges were pretty fun. I thought we may get blown off the second one. It felt like we were in a wind tunnel.
The little explorers
Taking a little break. I told Shamus that real men do this trek in there hairy bare feet.
The second of the suspension bridges with the face of Mt. Cook in the back.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

From Mt. Cook we continued on to Queenstown. Queenstown was easily one of our favorite spots. This town is beautiful. It is surrounded by lake Wanaka with the Remarkables (the local mountain range) as the back drop.

Soooo lovely.

This was the view from our apartment in Queenstown. Not to bad. I could have stayed here for the entire 15 days. No offense family but I was trying to think of a way to live here forever :P

Next post ... more of Queenstown and onward up the west coast.

Oh Canada

Well after 27 hours of flying, 2 "random" searches, 1 yelling match at baggage claim in LA we have stepped onto Canadian soil for the first time in almost two and a half years.

Oh Canada... How cold you are to me. After a wonderful March, Nova Scotia is receiving a bit of a cold snap. It was eight degrees Celsius yesterday. A bit of a change from Brisbane temperatures. Thank god for the warm welcome. Stacey's parents (Sandy and Rosie) were at the airport with a giant welcome home sign and some balloons and smarties for the kids. Thanks Grammy Rosie and Grampy Sandy!

We already miss all our wonderful friends in Australia. Thank you all for a wonderful send off. It truly was bitter sweet.

That is it for now. We will do some catching up in the next few days on the blog and post our New Zealand trip.

Take Care

We'rrrrrre Baaaaack!

Oh, what a great time we had! We LOVE New Zealand. Darryl and I kept thinking about what Nick and Mariana said when they got back - we moved to the wrong country! :) We do love Australia but, wow. New Zealand is amazing. There's just no disappointment. It felt like we were driving the Cabot Trail around Banff most of the time. Yeap. That is the best way I can describe it.

We arrived back in Brissie this morning and back to work tomorrow. Only 7 working days to go. The time has really flown by. It's hard to believe that we will be in Canada on April 27 (to our family - I got the date wrong...we're back on April 27!)

We do plan to be in Antigonish that weekend so let us know if you'll be around!

Ok, I really don't want to ramble on here for too long. I'm pretty beat and want to get a good night's sleep. We will definite post some trip pics soon...Nick/Mariana - I did think about stealing some of yours. heehee :)

Updates to come soon!