Adios, Alaska

Our adventures in Alaska are sadly coming to an end. Daniel has been transferred to the office in Santiago, Chile and we will be heading down there at the end of April. We have had the best sixteen months ever up here in the Last Frontier and we will miss it so much. We made some lovely friends who threw a farewell party for us at the Sourdough Mining Co. I guess we moved up from our "Cheechako" status, as our card read: "Real Alaskans Award: Because you did more in Alaska in one year than most of us do in a lifetime"!

We received a beautiful Native Alaskan hunting mask to remind us of our time here. It is crafted in the Inupiat style, and it tells the story of a hunter from the Elim tribe who had a successful hunt. The soapstone and wood mask in the centre represents the hunter, and he is flanked by a spear and oars made out of baleen (whalebone). Around the edge are the animals he has killed, mostly whales and seals, carved out of ivory.

Daniel's office also held a farewell lunch for us and gave us lovely send off. We received a traditional Native Alaskan souvenir carved out of whale and seal bone, and a beautiful Alaskan coffee-table book signed by all of Daniel's colleagues.

Thank you so much to all our Alaskan friends who made our time here so wonderful. We would love to repay your hospitality in Chile!

Happy Easter

In South Africa, the Easter Bunny hides a lot of chocolate eggs around the garden, which the kids hunt for and then stuff their faces with. In America, surprisingly, it is a much more wholesome holiday. Families spend time decorating boiled eggs together and then eat egg salad and egg sandwiches for the rest of the week! Because it's still a little snowy and slushy outside, the Alaskan Easter Bunny stays indoors and hides plastic eggs filled with money or sweets. We spent a lovely Easter Sunday with a group of friends, who were kind enough to let me decorate eggs and hunt for treats with their kids!

North Pole

Only in Alaska would there be a town named North Pole, 1,700 miles south of the real North Pole! This North Pole is a 3,000-person town that thrives on all things Christmas. The town has its Christmas decorations up all year round, the street lamps are decorated in a candy motif and local businesses are encouraged to have a festive theme. Even the famous Golden Arches sit atop a candy cane pole!

We drove along Santa Claus Lane, Snowman Lane and St Nicholas Drive, enjoying the Christmas-themed bus stops and street signs.

We also visited the famous Santa Claus House at 101 St Nicholas Drive. At Christmas time, this place receives hundreds of thousands of letters addressed to the resident Santa. We saw Santa's sled, the largest fibre glass Santa in the world and a couple of Santa's reindeer looking a bit out of shape!

It's considered very lucky to receive mail from North Pole franked with Santa's 99705 postmark, so we mailed ourselves a North Pole postcard. Now we can be naughty for the rest of the year and we should still get Christmas presents...!

Chena Hot Springs

Chena Hot Springs lies 56.5 miles northeast of Fairbanks. It was discovered in 1905 and became famous for curing crippled gold prospectors of their aches and pains with its healing waters. We bravely put on our costumes and scurried out the changerooms and into the Rock Lake. It was amazing to be outside in the sunshine, soaking up all the good minerals from the hot springs, while enjoying the snowy scenery...

Chena is also home to the world's largest year-round ice museum. It was created from over 1,000 tons of ice and snow all harvested at the resort. We went on a tour of the Aurora Ice Museum and were blown away by the sculptures inside, which included a workshop, four bedrooms, a chapel and a bar!

Have An "ICE" Day!

With a population of 35,000, Fairbanks is the second largest city in Alaska. It is known as the Golden Heart City and lies about 150 miles south of the Arctic Circle. We headed upstate for the weekend in the hopes of seeing the Northern Lights. Although we missed out on the Aurora, we still had a lovely time exploring the city along the banks of the Chena River.

We visited the World Ice Art Championships, home to the most amazing ice sculptures carved by teams from America, Japan, China, Norway, Spain and many other countries. Below are some pictures of the remarkable works of art.


In the Single Block Classic teams of two sculpt a 90cm x 150cm x 200cm block of Arctic Diamond Ice weighing 3,500kg.

In the Multi-Block Classic, teams of four are given ten 90cm x 100cm x 180cm blocks of pure Alaskan ice weighing in at 2,000kg each to create their crystal masterpieces.

There were also a few ice sculptures just for fun. We got lost in the incredible ice maze, played in the kids' park, made a phone call and read about the history of the World Champs on an ice wall!

Aurora Borealis

Somewhere near the top of our Alaskan Bucket List was to see the Northern Lights. This dream has been partially achieved as I was treated to an amazing display while Daniel was away on business in Chile. I managed to capture a few amateur photos of the phenomenon.

It was an unbelievable experience to see the green glowing lights moving and dancing in the sky - truly unforgettable! Now let's just hope we both get to see them before we leave...

Good times

It's that time of year again when 62 dog-mushers set off on a thousand mile journey across Alaska. This year we went all out for the start of the Iditarod.

We snow-machined out to our friends' cabin which lies on Crystal Lake, part of the Iditarod trail. 

Dan and Marleanna had spent the morning hauling wood, chairs and tables, a grill and an ice-fishing tent out onto the lake, and we all gathered around the bonfire to watch the teams come past.

It was so cool to see bush planes landing on the lake every ten minutes and then taxiing over to the race. 

The snow-maching was even more fun than last time. It was a (relatively) warm, sunny day, and we had the best view of Denali as we cruised over frozen lakes. Another memorable day in Alaska!