One of Fernie’s challenges is that there is no Public transport system. The ski hill and our house is a few kilometers from town in different directions. So we decided the best solution would be to buy a car. It ended being much easier than I thought.

When we were in Fernie in September we stopped at the Fernie dealership in town to have a look at what second hand (pre-owned, as they call it here) cars would cost. While looking around one of the sales guys came walking out. He started to enquire about our needs and I reluctantly started to tell him our story. I have never enjoyed a hard sell approach, and Hal (the sales guy) handled it really well.

I took his card and started to do some research when we got back to the hotel. It looked like it was possible to get a rental for 5 month but that would be more expensive than buying, using and then selling a car. It was very noticeable that the favourite type of car in town was pickup trucks. I am not sure if that is because it is really a mining town or more as a result of the hectic winter conditions. It seemed like a good idea for us to get a 4 x 4 for the worst of the winter storms.

We ended up buying this Ford Truck in Fernie

I also asked a few question around getting the car insured. They suggested I talk to the local broker, but also mentioned that I needed to get my claims history for the last 8 years to minimize my insurance.

Back in South Africa I tried to get information out of the broker in Fernie, but never got any response out of them. After a few attempts Hal referred me to another broker in Cranbrook named Ari Kupritz (Brothers Insurance Agency). Ari was actually born in South Africa, their family moved to Canada when he was 3. He had helped other foreigners before and was very helpful and answered all my questions.

Hal had also offered to fetch us from the airport in Calgary when we arrived. I am not sure if he realized what he was letting himself in for, because between the 5 of us we had 9 huge pieces of check-in luggage and another 7 carry-on. But somehow we fitted it all into the minivan.

After dropping everybody off at the house, Hal and I headed to the dealership to make the final pick of the truck we would take, do the paperwork and process the payment. The choice was simple and we decided on a 2006 Ford truck with about 90 000 km on. Paperwork was quickly done, although I forgot that all prices here exclude sales tax (ouch).

When we finally tried to process the payment we needed to call the green bank back in SA, they just said their system is offline and we needed to try again in an hour (this after I prepared them for the transaction twice). It was already too late, so we decided to try again in the morning when it was daytime in SA, since the registration could also only happen the next day. The guys at Ford gave me a loan minivan for the night and I headed back home.

The next morning the payment went through straight away and the Hal agreed to go with me to Cranbrook to do the insurance and registration. I did not realize that both those would be done with the insurance company, and in about 5 min the car was registered, licenced and insured. All done with Brothers Insurance, it was really easy and efficient. I even had brand new licences plate to go with it. It was very interesting that it could all happen without dealing with any government department. The insurance is also tied to the license plate, and is done mostly on an annual basis not monthly like in SA. I did manage to get my claims history and it saved me about 40% on the insurance.

Our Canadian number plates

Buying a car in Fernie turned out to be much easier than I thought, and so far it is driving like a dream. Hopefully everything else will go as smoothly over here. Thanks to Hal and the other guys at Fernie Ford for the help, and Ari for helping with the insurance. I hope everybody we deal with is as helpful.

Here we are in Fernie! It has been a really busy week and we are still settling in. The kids are still waking up at odd hours of the night, like 0215 this morning, but that could be the time zone change or just being a 2 year old.

Getting to Fernie was surprisingly easy. The kids were really well behaved and everything worked out great. Our first flight from OR Tambo to Frankfurt was completely full. The kids were very excited and intrigued by everything in the plane. After the meal and a bit of encouragement Sarika fell asleep in Ankie’s arms. Christopher followed a little later, and they both slept about 5 hours. The worst part of the travel was the decent into Frankfurt, Sarika cried all the way down; we practised the motto: “keep calm and carry on”.

There was some perks to flying with the kids: Frankfurt had a special line for families, with no queue and about 5 people helping us get through. What a breeze! The 5 hour stopover felt much shorter and before we knew it we were on the plane to Calgary (after boarding first, another perk of flying with kids). The second flight was less than 30% full, so we had a row of 4 seats for each of us. Sarika also slept about 8 out of the 10 hours, with a little prescribed Valegran.  We all got some sleep, stretched out over the seats!  It helped a lot having a third pair of hands, ears and eyes on our trip, and I know having Eunice with us (our holiday au pair) is going to be the best idea ever!

Getting to Fernie: Sarika on Air Canada Flight, she slept 8 out of the 10 hours

Getting through immigration in Calgary took a little more time than we had planned and the officer wanted to see all kinds of documents. A family staying for 5 months must look a bit suspicious to them. But after all that we were through and into the rental car on our way to the hotel. Justinus forgot to book a GPS with the car we had to navigate the old fashion way, with a map, luckily that is one of his strong characteristics and I wasn’t worried at all!

Once at the hotel the first stop was to get local SIM cards so we could be connected to the world once more! We then went on to Mountain Equipment Co-op to buy some clothes for the kids, by this time they were hit really hard by the Jet lag, they fell asleep in the car. They did not think it was funny when we woke them to fit the clothes.  The shoes were fitted in their sleep!  So we rather left and went back to the hotel. We got some take-out (as they called it) on the way there, and everybody but Justinus fell asleep in the car.

At 10:00 Christopher woke up, wanting to go to the loo, Sarika woke shortly thereafter, wanting to know if she may have a sweetie!!?  I was praying that the kids will go back to sleep, as I was very tired myself; at 11:30 the battle was won.  At 3:30 I woke up with a thankful heart, with a kid on each side, upside down, their legs all over me, smelly feet in my face, holding their hands while they were still in dreamland.  Thankful that the travelling has gone much easier than anticipated,  that the kids, especially Christopher was so well behaved on the plane (Sarika was just busy J), that we’ve all made it safe on the other side, that we all kept calm and that everything worked out well.

We even found a Nando’s in Calgary! That is our favourite take out back home!

Well, with everybody up so early, there was enough time to sort out Justinus’ cell phone issues, exchange clothes at MEC and get something to eat!  We actually saw a Nando’s (our favourite) but it wasn’t open yet.  We opted for KFC that was close by our pickup to Fernie.  Sarika spilled a full glass of apple juice over Eunice, but she handled it quite well!  Hal from Fernie Ford picked us up, and we crammed everything in the minivan.  I slept for the better part of the drive to Fernie.  On our arrival we’ve collected the house keys at Fernie Rentals and were on our way to our new home for the next 5 months.  What a relief when we arrived, finally here!!

Getting to Fernie was the first part of our epic journey! That box is ticked, now the fun starts!