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!

Kiwi Time

Just a quick post to let you know that we are taking off to New Zealand tomorrow morning. We had a very busy day as the kids had swimming in the morning then we met a few friends/kiddies at New Market pool for a last "kid" get together. Then we rushed off to pick up the last odds and ends that we need for our trip.

We're getting organized with the move home but we have other things that also need to get done so my brain is feeling pretty exhausted right now. The holiday will be very nice but I'm sure I'll be worrying about all the things that need to be taken care of when we return! :) Oh well, it will have to wait!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter. Enjoy the turkey dinners! Yummmmmmy!!

I don't think we'll be doing any posting while we're away so see you in a couple of weeks!!

The plans are in motion

Ohhh, the last couple of weeks have been VERY busy for us! No time for posting so this could be the last one for a while (although I will need to post some NZ pics, won't I? hmm). We've been trying to get the house ready, organize the details for going home, organize our trip to NZ, makes plans for our stop in Sydney, do some last minute sightseeing with the kids, say Good bye to friends thru BBQ's, drinks, dinners,etc, and still work!! This doesn't leave any free time for blogging so I'm not sure what posting I'll get to do before we go.

I do want to post a couple of pics of Rej and Clo's baby, Gabriel because he is too darn cute to forget! The below pics are just a few days after getting home from the hospital. Things seems to be going well in the Poirier/Belanger household! I think Rej and Clo are a bit tired but that is all part of the package and something that most new parents are aware will happen. :)

Shamus loves little babies so he was pretty excited to see Gabriel. Clo looks great!

I love a good cuddle with a new baby!! They are soooo darn cute!

Shamus was pretty happy when Clo asked if he wanted to hold Gabriel. He doesn't quite understand that babies can't hold their own head so I was a bit concerned about little Gabriel's! Shamus did well though. He had no interest in Breagha at all when she came home from the hospital but he loves all the new babies our friends are having. Very nice to see.

I hope to pop over to Rej and Clo's tomorrow and will get in some more quality time with the baby! I told Rej and Clo...it's not about them anymore!

We've been really busy on the weekends...sorting through our stuff and getting out with the kids. We asked them both what they would like to do before we leave Australia. Breagha said that she would like to see a kangaroo. Great answer! We went to Daisy Hill and saw some wallabies. And then we went to Lone Pine and even got to feed the kangaroo's!

Shamus said that he would like to go ice skating at Ice World. I don't think so! I explained that we'll get to do that in Canada for $5.00 instead of $65.00 and we can do it all the time. But, he still really wanted to go to Ice World. That isn't going to happen. :)

Love our camelpacks from Debra and Raul. They're great! Water and room for snacks!

We really enjoyed our hike at Daisy Hill. We thought it would be a good way to get the kids out before our trip to NZ. They'll be doing a lot of walking there!! They did really well - both keen as they had on new hiking shoes.

Breagha just looked too cute in her hiking gear.

Shamus putting his camera skills to work. We don't let him use the camera too much but sometimes...and he is getting better.

Brisbane is such a great city. We really love it. The family life is perfect here. But, I still love to get out of the city and enjoy the outdoors!! Just walking through the woods with Darryl and the kids was wonderful. I enjoyed it so much.

Aren't the trees here crazy?!! Look at the small bench on the left side (under the tree). It gives you an idea of the size.

Last Saturday we went to Byron Bay...one last trip to our favorite little surf town. I just love it there. We hung out on the beach, then did a bit of shopping, had dinner at the little fish n'chip shop by the water, and then we went up to the lighthouse to watch the sunset. A perfect trip.

So, we're squeezing in a lot before we go. We're getting pretty organized with our packing. This weekend we're hooking up with some of the families and teachers from the daycare. A last playgroup for the kids. And then we fly to Christchurch on Sunday morning...back Mon/Apr 12.

No idea when I'll get to post next!!! :)

I need to make it official

Hi all,

I just want to do a quick post to get everyone up to date with all that has been going on with us. I'm behind again with my posting but I'm blaming it on my cousin, Allister! He is a naughty influence on us. Keeping us up late and bringing beer and wine to the house! Poor Darryl did 3 nights in a row this week...out with coworkers and then with Allister and Sean. He's pretty tired today and so am I! But, we really enjoyed having family with us and taking him around the city. It worked out nicely as we showed Allister some of Brisbane - he's first time seeing it and probably our last! Which is the reason for the post. We're going home!!

We will be extremely sad to say good bye to our wonderful friends here and we love the way of life in Australia. But, I'm very excited to get home and see family and old friends. We were hoping to move home by July-ish so this is a bit earlier than we thought. But, we can't complain! Darryl started looking about a month ago and things moved very quicky after that. We'll be flying home the end of April and Darryl will start work with Ubisoft in Montreal the 10th of May. We are still getting to do our trip to New Zealand and we hope to stop in Sydney for a couple of days before we fly out.

And that is the MacPurdy update! I've been meaning to do an update for over a week now and can't seem to get the time on the computer. Sorry to everyone that has emailed in the last week or so....I promise, I always reply, I'm just behind! We have had a lot of things to sort out before we go and we also want to do a few things with the kids before we go....so not much computer time!

Farewell BBQ's and Birthday Dinners! :)

So, I am a bit behind with blogging as I took a couple of weeks off. And I was already behind before then! But, I do need to live my life and not just write about it! Right?! :) I do enjoy my little breaks as I really am not that into computers. I do what I need to on them and that is it. I don't "surf the web", read other blogs (unless it's friends/family), I don't chat on Facebook or Twitter, and I don't even know what else is out there these days! But, I do enjoy the computer for blogging as it keeps family and friends up to date on what we've been up to. I am still old fashion and enjoy a good phone call!! (that's right Steve, the phone!)

I also like to write emails to friends as it is a great way to keep in touch. Evelyne and Cheryl Benoit are amazing at emailing me. Thanks ladies! I always enjoy your updates! And Jolyne writes the best emails because I can totally hear her talking to me in every letter. And they are letters!! Thanks Jo. :) I know everyone is busy so I do appreciate the emails.

Ok, where was I before I got off track. Oh yeah, my blog! So, we had a BBQ for Nick and Mariana before they headed back to California. Great time was had and lots of wonderful food.

I'm not sure what the boys were chatting about...maybe Darryl didn't want to carry Nicks' beer? Nick does not look impressed!!

We enjoyed some outside time before the BBQ.

Time to eat!

Our BIG farewell card to Nick and Mariana...

So, after the BBQ, Kate found out that Nick had not tried Vegemite since he arrived in Australia. The Aussies are not that into peanut butter and jam sandwiches. They're all about their vegemite. But, vegemite is VERY MUCH an aquired taste. Most foreigners don't enjoy a vegemite sandwich but most Aussies love them! (not a fan myself) Kate felt that Mariana just didn't get the proper Vegemite sandwich - it needs to be on toasted bread with just a bit of vegemite...not too much.

Hmmm, let's see if Mariana loved it the second time around!!

Yeah, I don't think so!!

And now onto Nick...

Oh, not lookin' good!

Nick was determined to enjoy his vegemite and after a couple of bites he was getting there!

Maybe not.

We had a great time and hope Nick and Mariana are glad to be back home. We wish them all the best of luck and hope to see them...maybe in Mexico? Oh yeah!!!!!!

** Moving along! Onto our next topic **

Sorry this is getting long but it's been awhile!

We also enjoyed a lovely dinner 2 Friday's ago with friends - to celebrate Amy's 30 birthday! She looked lovely!

She and Dan picked a great spot. A Japanese restaurant along the water. We had a really great time...it was our first time using our babysitter in about a year! So, I didn't give Darryl any choice - I wanted him sitting right next to me! Yeap. I was strict about this too. :) Just like being close to you Babe!

Kate was trying to teach me how to do this SAUCY look for a pic. Hmmm, I don't think I got the hang of it. She does it very well!

Rej enjoyed cooking up his meal on the little grill in front of him. Very cool I thought.

Ok, here is the look! Kate - 1 / Stacey - 0

Mom to be, Clo, enjoying the desert! (Gabriel has finally arrived and is supppppper cute!)

And the ladies getting ready to head out.

We had a wonderful time and thanks to Dan and Amy for inviting us along.

Happy Birthday Amy!

That's it for now. I need to give myself a day or two before I post the next update!