Better than late than never

It has been brought to my attention that my promises of posting about my travels in Nunavut never quite materialized...so here goes. Pardon the "stream of consciousness" nature of this post; a lot has happened since we arrived in June, so I'll be writing things and adding pictures as they occur to me.

5 months now into my job, I have made four trips from Iqaluit to other parts of the territory. Those trips include:
-Kivalliq region (central Nunavut) and portions of the Qikiqtaaluk (Baffin Island and the High Arctic)
-Kitikmeot region (western Nunavut)
-Arctic Bay and the former operating Nanisivik Mine
-Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord

During these trips I have visited or stopped at 12 of the 25 communities in Nunavut, including a recent visit to the northernmost civilian settlement in Canada, Grise Fiord (and third-most northern settlement, after Eureka and Alert).

Some interesting experiences during this trip include traveling by helicopter, staying at a DEW (Defense Early Warning) Line camp, and seeing a variety of arctic wildlife, including:

Muskox


Caribou


Wolves


Grizzly bears


Polar bears


DEW Line Camp


Grise Fiord was neat. It is located on Ellesmere Island, slightly higher than 76 degrees latitude (for reference, Iqaluit is at about 63 degrees, and our former home of Saskatoon is at 52 degrees), and the trip was made in late October. As such, the sun hung just above the horizon during the brief daylight, and the moon was always visible. The settlement sits right on the coast, with mountainous terrain behind it.


An interesting encounter we had in Iqaluit was with a women named Kristen Keller, who is traveling across Canada teaching kids how to make "robots" out of recycled material, a small rotary motor and markers for legs, as a bridge between the art and science world. We got together with Kristen a few times while she was in Iqaluit, and attended a robot race she held. We even made our own robot (which didn't work very well), but it was fun spending time with her and hearing about her project. Here is a link to the project's website, and I've attached a picture below of some of the robots. Kristen is looking for donation's to support their efforts - take a look at the website to see if it is something you would like to support!

I'm pleased to report that our kitties are doing well. We received a donation of a tall scratching post from some of the friends we have made here, which the kitties have been enjoying immensely.


The observant among you will spy in the background the picture of Gir that Noel gave us before we left for Iqaluit.

The Anglican cathedral here, which was burned down in 2005, is in the process of being rebuilt. It will be in the shape of an igloo. I've attached a shot at the beginning of construction, and the current state.

At this point enough money has been raised to construct the shell of the cathedral, but another $3.5-4 million still needs to be raised to finish the interior and make it fully usable. Christine and I live rather close to the cathedral; I just took the above shot leaning out of one of our upstairs windows!

I had a faithful traveling companion during my trips around Nunavut, pictured here:

This is my "Gnome Away From Home", which Christine bought me some time ago. I decided that he should come traveling with me, starting on my second trip away from home. He has been to some interesting places.


You may wonder what's the deal with this last picture of the gnome. He is standing on a caribou skeleton, one that has been died faintly blue by sitting in copper-enriched waters, hence the name of the showing we were visiting: "Blue Caribou" Original, isn't it?

What else is there to tell?

• Christine started a job as a communications specialist in September, which will run until the end of the year.
• I was recently informed that I was the successful candidate in a job competition for a District Geologist position, and started that new role this past Monday. This new position will mean an increase in responsibility (and pay). I am responsible for the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut, as well as the High Arctic (not that there is very much mineral exploration going on there).
• I leave for Yellowknife tomorrow for a week, which I am looking forward to. While there I will be presenting a talk on Nunavut mineral exploration at the NWT Geoscience Forum, and also attending a short course. A trip to Yellowknife also affords other opportunities, such as stocking up on various goods that can be bought at more reasonable prices there. Having access to a highway must be nice.
  
• Finally, Christine and I are at long last planning our honeymoon. As I will already be in Vancouver next January for a conference, we are going to leave immediately after that for about a week and a half on the north island of New Zealand! Some of the exciting activities we have planned include visiting volcanically active Rotorua, blackwater rafting (underground rafting) in the glowworm caves of Waitomo and Cornevil in Auckland, where actors wielding chainsaws (and other implements of destruction) chase you through a corn maze. It should be fun! For those in Vancouver and area, my conference is from Jan. 24-27, and I expect to be there no later than the 23rd, possibly sooner, so if it can be arranged I would love to meet up. We fly to New Zealand on the 28th, and Christine will be coming a few days before that.
  

To sum up: the move to Iqaluit has been a good one for us. Although we miss our friends and family in Saskatchewan (and elsewhere), we both feel that we are contributing here, and experiencing many wonderful new things. As always, we extend an invitation to any of our friends and family who are interested in traveling up here - it is expensive, no doubt about it, but it is also beautiful.

I will leave off with some sunset pictures of our city: