Arrival

Another early start to depart for Wabush at 8am.  The flight from Montreal to Wabush is actually three short flights, Montreal to Quebec, Quebec to Sept Iles then Sept Iles to Wabush.  The flight is on a Dash 8 which has about 10 rows of seats with two and two across, a cold drink and a packet of crackers is served on each leg so it’s best to take food, especially for the kids.  On the last flight we could see snow from the window seats, Cooper was so excited and he just couldn’t hold it in, the passengers close by were smiling and laughing at him, especially when he pointed out all of the Christmas trees.

We had a great welcome at the airport, Maxine, our IOC host from our last visit was there to drive us to our new house as well as Brendan, another Rio Tinto Aussie expat, and Randy, a Newfoundlander that we knew from working at Boyne Smelters in Queensland.  A few extra hands (and cars) made light work of our bags and we were soon on our way to our new house.

There was a light covering of snow on the house and the lawn, the house was warm and there was a beautiful fruit hamper waiting for us in the kitchen.  It was all a blur as we unzipped bags, looked in all the rooms and cupboards, moved furniture, chatted with Randy and Brendan, made some lunch and planned our next steps.

Cooper was desperate to make a snowball no matter how little snow there was so we dressed him up in his snow boots, jacket, hat and gloves and he stomped around on the front lawn and threw snow balls at the house.  The day time temperature in Labrador City is about 0 degC at the moment but quite still so it doesn’t feel as cold as Montreal which was a bit windy.  Even so, you can’t stay outside much longer than a few minutes without getting on some proper shoes and a jacket.  I still had my slip on shoes on despite being told by several people on the plane and at the airport that they would not be suitable, they were right, I had to get inside and warm up!

First Snow

BTW We had a walk around Montreal city on Friday and it seems like quite a nice city.  We visited some other friends from Boyne Smelters the afternoon then had an awesome dinner at a Portuguese restaurant with Steve’s new boss at IOC.  His wife, Annie, gave me lots of tips on Lab City, hair dressers, doctors, sports, schools etc, I feel like I have so much to do…..

Our House